The media industries (print, television, radio, on-line, outdoor, and indoor) are always interested in determining their audiences so as to better assess the value of the products they provide to advertisers and others. Given recent developments in the media industries, there has been a renewed interest in outdoor and indoor media displays. Unfortunately, until now there has been a lack of consensus and acceptance of a system and/or method of assessing the value of outdoor and indoor media displays (e.g., billboards, posters, kiosks, video kiosks, on-line kiosks, and other publicly viewable media displays). More specifically, in recent years, the publicly viewable media display industries have made significant progress in delivering their publicly viewable media displays. Unfortunately, the research industry that could provide exposure, frequency, and reach estimates has not kept pace with these developments. Accordingly, publicly viewable media display providers have not been able to take advantage of media-buying changes and thereby increase market share against other measured media (e.g., television, radio, and on-line). In fact, many potential clients do not even consider publicly displayed media as there is no reliable measurement system to gauge exposure to the public.
Accordingly, it would be an advantage to provide accurate measurements of exposure to public media displays in order to obtain exposure, reach and frequency statistics that can justify the value of such media displays. However, there are unique problems with media displays. Radio, TV, and on-line media have the ability to assure a one-to-one or at least a one-to-a limited number tracking of viewers. The very nature of publicly viewable media displays allows a variety of individuals to be viewing the same display at the same time. Furthermore, there may be many more “channels” of publicly viewable media displays available in a given geographic area than would be available over radio or television.
This increase in both viewers and publicly viewable media channels provides scalability issues. If every individual and every media display must be tracked, the cost of calculating accurate reach and frequency statistics may become prohibitive. Previous media display solutions have tried to provide such an unscalable many-to-many solution. One such previous system has tried to provide radios in vehicles that respond to radios on media displays. However, to be effective, such a system requires radios on every media display in a given environment to give an accurate assessment. Leaving a radio off a particular media display would mean that media display has no chance of being assessed. Additionally, a substantial subset of individuals must carry radios responsive to the media display radios in order for this approach to be even marginally effective.
Another ineffective solution has been the use of consumer surveys. Consumer surveys are ineffective because such surveys change respondent behavior and are inherently inaccurate as respondents rarely remember all the media displays they were exposed to. As many media providers are well aware, some media displays can convey a message, and change a respondent's behavior, without the respondent actively recalling that they were exposed to the media display.
Other previous systems have involved tracking vehicles through various means. While vehicle tracking is marginally effective, it has the drawback of being less granular with regard to demographics. Over an extended period of time many vehicles will have different occupants having different demographics. It is difficult, if not impossible, to accurately reconstruct the demographics of every passenger and/or driver of a vehicle. Additionally, under ordinary circumstances, vehicles are not allowed in pedestrian-only areas, such as shopping malls and/or pedestrian thoroughfares.
Similar needs are found in other industries that are also interested in determining their audiences so as to better plan for placement of services and other assets. Until now there has been a similar lack of consensus and acceptance of a system and/or method of assessing the value of placement of services and other assets.
Accordingly, there is a need for an accurate system and/or method for tracking the exposure of demographically identified individuals to media displays. Such tracking should be operable over extended periods and should track individuals both indoors and outdoors. It is desirable that such a system and or method also be usable in other industries.